The present invention relates generally to the detection of microorganisms in various media or on various substrates, for various purposes or applications, such as microbial detection or identification.
More specifically, the invention is concerned with reagents comprising an aqueous-phase reaction medium which contains at least one carbon source as well as a luminescent marker, a luminous emission of which is capable of modification as a result of the growth or metabolism of the microorganism to be detected, introduced into the reaction medium.
Microorganism is understood to mean, in particular, microbes, bacteria and yeasts.
"Luminous emission" is understood to mean any luminous radiation emitted under the effect of an external excitation, in particular luminous excitation, in the visible region or otherwise, capable of being modified by the growth of the microorganism in the reaction medium, and of being observed, monitored or measured by all means of optical detection, including simple observation with the naked eye. From this definition, various luminous properties are apparent, such as luminescence, fluorescence and phosphorescence, visible or otherwise to the naked eye, for example.